Your coachee has come up with various options of what they could do to resolve their issue. Now it’s time to pin those down with planning and goal-setting. Which of the options are they going to choose to take forward, when will they do it/them, who might they need to ask for help or resources?
Tag: leader as coach
Leader as Coach: Designing Actions
Coaching is about change. To change, we need to take action of some kind. Before we can take action, we need to consider the possibilities, designing actions, and then make a choice about which action(s) to take. Sometimes, people have come to coaching feeling like they have just two ways of going forward. But neither
Leader as Coach: Creating Awareness
Creating awareness comes bit by bit, and then all at once. Slowly, slowly, we (the leader as coach) help the other person to get clear on what they want to figure out; we ask questions that get them to a place of new knowing; we listen in a way that allows us to play back
Leader as Coach: Direct Communication
Leaders need to get comfortable with direct communication in coaching conversations. No flannel, just directness. I am frequently asked the question, “how can you be non-directive at the same time as providing direct communication? Aren’t those diametrically opposite?” Direct communication is an offer, to which we should be unattached. If it doesn’t land with the
Leader as Coach: Powerful Questioning
The most powerful questioning does not require a question at all; but silence. That silence that allows the person to take their thinking where they need to take it, rather than where you think it should go next. That’s it. That’s all there is for today’s post! That’s not true, but I want you to
Leader as Coach: Active Listening
Active listening is as much about silence as anything else. Silence is golden. That includes in your role as leader coach. Silence allows the thinker to think. So, get comfortable with silence. And when the thinker does speak, pay attention. Notice what they are saying, but also how they are saying it, and what their
Leader as Coach: Coaching presence
One of the things people often say as a result of coaching is that it’s the first time they feel they have been really heard, properly heard, fully humanly heard. That’s because of the total coaching presence of the person alongside them. Being 100% with the person, no distractions. How often can you say that
Coaching competencies for leaders
The case for coaching is clear. Now let’s look at how leaders apply coaching competencies in their work with their team members. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be highlighting the International Coach Federation coaching competencies, and how they translate into the workplace. As a taster, here they are: Setting the Foundation Meeting Ethical Guidelines
The leader experience and derailers
When a leader’s experience is on an upward trajectory, working through the leadership pipeline, it can be tempting to become blase about that progress. So often though, leaders derail. The Center for Creative Leadership has studied what derails leaders and found five derailers get in the way of their continued success. These derailers are all things
Coaching, training or mentoring?
I often have to explain that coaching is not the same as mentoring, training or counselling. I thought it might be useful to take a step back and reflect on the differences between various forms of capability development options, and their different uses.
Triple the Wisdom
While you take a breather to let us all know how Two-Day went for you, here’s a guest post from Patrick Ryan that gives us more food-for-thought about what to bring to our conversations: Patrick writes: “Imagine how your life at work would be different if you could expand your ability to apply your own
How was Two-Day?
Do share in the comments box how your conversations went on Two-Day. How does it feel to have closed that conversation gap? If you didn’t get the chance to have the conversation on Two-Day itself, there’s still all the time in the world….and yet, there isn’t. What I mean is that the longer you leave
Today is Two-Day: time to fill that conversation gap
So it’s time to have that conversation that you’ve been putting off. Time to hold yourself and your supervisor or career counsellor accountable for higher standards. But if you can’t have the conversation today, don’t make that an excuse not to have it. These conversations must happen if we are to feel better engaged, and
Fill that conversation gap: Two-Day Storybird
Just one day until Two-Day (22/2/2012). In celebration, and as a reminder for you, Bob and I created this Storybird, a short electronic picture-book to encourage you to fill that conversation gap. I’m really proud of it; I hope it inspires you to schedule a conversation – either with those working for you, or with
Trust and the conversation gap
We’ve been talking about conversation gaps, and using Two-Day (22/2/2012) to fill those conversation gaps. If you’ve missed the previous blogs about this, catch up here: What will you do to celebrate Two-Day What is a Conversation Gap? Which conversations are most “gappy”? One of the reasons that there may be a gap in
Which conversations are most “gappy”?
Continuing with our theme about the conversations gap, I thought you’d want to know which kinds of conversations will make the most difference. Perhaps this is where you should focus the conversations on Two-Day. Career Innovation, in their research, found that “many
